Two Dead Boys and a Mute Girl
by Amaz.333
Summary: Molly Campbell is ignored by her mother, protected by her sick twin brother, and loved by the spirit of Jonah. She works with Matt to free the souls trapped in their new house in Connecticut, forcing down tears and begging to scream. *This story is under revision and will be replaced at a later date.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Haunting in Connecticut.**

* * *

><p>"Please, God don't make him suffer," mom said, thinking that Matt and I were asleep, but we weren't. "Please, make it work, or I'll never-"<p>

"You know, I hear that talking to yourself is the first sign of losing it," Matt interrupted, tired of listening to her pray. I was tired of it too, but what would be the point of me trying to stop her.

"I was not talking to myself. I was talking to God," she corrected, glancing at me from the review mirror. She didn't like me coming along to the hospital, but Matt refused to go without me, even if it was for him.

"Well, threatening the creator of the universe is, like, step two," he sighed, while I leaned my head on his shoulder, and stretched my aching legs. "That can't be good," he smirked, laying his head on mine in response.

"I was not threatening him," she sighed. "I was simply letting him know how precious you are to me," she stated. Matt's breathing was getting really heavy.

"You gotta pull over, Mom. I'm gonna be sick,"

"Very funny," she smiled.

"No seriously, Mom," he said, I sat up straight and held onto his chest.

Mom pulled over, and I waited against the car as he let the contents of his stomach out in the grass on the side of the road. "It's whatever. Just don't look, Mom, okay? I'm all right," he said, waving his hand behind him as Mom leaned every which way to keep an eye on him.

"How come you don't go out there to check on him? At least he'd let you," Mom asked, still craning her neck to see him clearly.

What Matt and I discuss is our business, whether or not she's our Mom and she's just worried, he doesn't like being weak, especially not in front of other people, so being sick by himself is his way of still at least being able to do something by himself.

I sat around the corner, listening to the conversation between Mom and Dad. "Jesus. I know it's a long way, but how did it take you eight hours?"

"Do you really wanna know how many times we stopped so he could vomit?" Mom retorted.

"God." Dad whispered. "How is he now?"

"He's all right. I think he's still sleeping," she muttered. "I really wish Molly wouldn't come with us, though. I know they're twins and they don't like to be separated, but still."

Dad didn't say anything for a moment, "Let me get breakfast. You go to bed."

"It's okay. Wendy's helping and I'm kind of wired from driving."

Speaking of Wendy, she strolled past me, smiling down at me curled up on the stairs, with a book in my lap.

"Good morning, Aunt Sara."

"Morning, honey. Sorry about the chaos."

"It's better than my house." After that I got tired of listening to them and went to the dining room to nab some food. I saw Matt and snatched a piece of bacon, tagging along with him to the kitchen.

"Nobody plans on having a child with cancer, and than one who can't talk." We both stared at Mom for a moment, her voice making what she said hurtful.

"You know that's not what I meant."

"I know." I tugged on Matt's sleeve, pulling him away from the room, even though Dad had already seen us.

Matt silently fumed in our room, sighing loudly, and then settling on his bed after getting winded. "I wish you could talk, it kind of sucks having a one sided conversation with your sister." he laughed. I could only smile. I wished I could talk, too. But, I guess signing will have to suffice. At least Matt knows it, and Mom and Dad know it well enough.

I held onto Matt's hand the entire ride home. He kept squeezing my fingers until they turned purple or red. But, I didn't mind. His pain was far worse then mine. "They said you'd have body aches, but no nausea." Mom said.

Matt only laughed, slightly. I wiped away the tear that rolled down his cheek, intertwining our arms together. Closeness to each other always seemed to make the pain a little easier to bare. It wouldn't make the pain go away in the slightest, but it would become more manageable, by making it clear you weren't alone.

"Doctor says to patient, I've got bad news." I instantly remembered the joke. I'd signed it to him the day we found out he had cancer. "You've got cancer, and you've got Alzheimer's. Patient says: Oh, man. At least I don't have cancer." I smiled, and let a tear run down my cheek, just as I noticed one go down his.

"At least you won't lose your hair, again." Mom commented.

"Well, that's something." he sighed, leaning his head on mine. He gasped in pain, almost keeling over in my lap, as Mom made a U-turn. I wrapped my arms around Matt, and just held him to me as he clutched my arms.

We'd gone back to a house. Matt and I were laying on the mattresses, watching some old movie on the TV. I had a massive fear of unfamiliar places, and it took me awhile to warm up to them. Since Matt was the best brother in the world, he held my hand and let me cuddle up to him, turning up the volume on the TV to block out Mom's conversation with Dad over the phone, and then turning it off. He turned his head just as the image went out, and I saw a man standing in the open doorway, who then turned to leave. I gasped and looked over my shoulder, but there was no sign of anyone being there.

_Just my imagination…_ I thought to myself, as I wrapped my arms around Matt's waist, getting comfortable on his shoulder.

Matt and I would share a room again, to the constant protesting of Mom. Mom was also against the basement as the room. "Look, it's nice and it's cool, and best, it's got its own private bathroom. Nobody has to hear me."

"You don't have to hide from us." Mom sighed, looking around, again leaving me out of the conversation. I couldn't blame her though, it's not like I'd have much of an input, anyway.

"The fact that everyone can hear me puking…it just makes me feel worse, okay?" he said, walking over to the creepy doors.

"What about Molly?" she asked, gesturing to me. "She can't speak, but she can hear pretty well."

"Molly helps me get through my sick episodes. Plus, she says she likes it down here, too."

I smiled, and signed- "*Although, it's a bit creepy.*" (Direct translation- Although, it kind of scare.)

Matt laughed, while Mom looked slightly confused. Mom was decent at sign, but Matt and I were pretty fluent in the language.

Mom and Matt went to try and see through the windows of the creepy doors, I stayed a good few feet from them. "What do you think's back there?" he asked.

"I don't know."

_I'd rather not find out…_ I thought, rolling my eyes. There was a banging that scared us, but it was just dad.

Dad and Matt got the mattress onto the bed. Yeah, we shared a room, and a bed. I was afraid of the dark- seriously, and Matt didn't mind sharing a bed with me, as long as the mattress was big enough. "Well, it's a little dark, but, hey, I was a teenager once." Dad sighed looking around. "What's in here?" he asked, walking over to the creepy doors. _Why's everyone so interested in those doors?_

"_I don't know. I couldn't open it." _

"_Well…the doorknob turns, but…" Dad kept trying to open the door._

"_*Why is everyone so curious about the door?*" I asked Matt who shrugged._

"_*We don't know what's behind there.*" he smiled, signing back to me._

"_Maybe they sealed it for storage." Dad sighed, giving up._

"_*Posters are going on those windows as soon as I get sticky tack*" I signed, smirking._

"_*As long as there aren't any half naked guy on them.*" he laughed._

"_*Or half naked girls.*" I shot back._

"_I still don't know why you two want to stay down here." Mom complained slapping down the mop to clean. Matt cupped his hands against the window, trying to see into the darkness again. I was busy putting my books on the shelf._

"_Whoa, Mom." Matt exclaimed, I turn to look to see red all over the floor._

"_What?" she asked, as if nothing was wrong. She kept spreading it around, I rubbed my eyes, praying I was just really tired, unable to get very good sleep due to nightmares. When I looked again, it was just plain, non-red water._

"_Are you okay?" she asked, looking to Matt. _

_He must have seen the same thing as I did. "Yeah, just thanks for cleaning our room." he said, covering up his freak out quickly._

"_No problem."_


	2. Chapter 2

Mom was always so gentle with Matt…she didn't even talk to me, unless it was to question how Matt and I were together. She thought I was too old to be scared of the dark, too old to be afraid of anything. She thought Matt and I were too old to share a room- which was probably true, but we hated being separated. It wasn't always like that, though.

Before I lost my hearing, Matt and I were like any normal pair of siblings, we had our differences, and our arguments. The fact that we were twins made us want to be so different from each other in any possible way. We had never wanted to be the same, but sometimes when Mom or Dad would talk to us individually, they would slip, mentioning things that we seemed to always do the same.

After the first time Dad had said we had a tendency to do the same thing, I started paying close attention to my brother. At dinner, I'd noticed we ate our food the same way. One thing had to be gone before starting on the next part of the meal. I even stole one of Matt's papers from school once…our hand writing was almost completely identical, aside from the parts where I deliberately changed the style.

So one night when Matt and I were at a birthday party for a mutual friend, out at the lake, we were all playing kick ball. The ball was kicked hard by the birthday boy, Jonas, who had a reputation for kicking with a lot of force, but not a lot of accuracy. It went out to the center of the mass of water, no one from town, now even Judy Benson, captain of the high schools swim team, could make it out that far.

This was before Matt was diagnosed with Cancer; Jonas dared him to swim out there and get it, but Matt refused. He wasn't a good swimmer anyway, neither of us were. Jonas turned to me, "I guess you're too much a chicken to go out there, like Matt." he teased. He wasn't gone to ask me to go get it any way, but I didn't want to be like Matt. I huffed up my chest and took off my shoes, walking over to the edge of the water. "Molly, you don't have to do that, seriously." Jonas said, trying to get me to stop, but I was already wading out to the deeper part, and swimming my way over.

By the time I was a few feet to the ball, I'd gotten a cramped muscle, and it hurt like hell. I tried to push myself farther, to at least have the ball to float on, but something had caught my leg, and with each time I struggled to get loose, it kept sucking back, pulling me under. It was seaweed or something, but I was tangled up inside it soon enough, thrashing about until I ran out of oxygen. I though I was going to die, and the popping in my ears was making everything around me seem so hopeless. It seemed like forever before I saw the light. I thought it was the light Mom had told us about when grandma died, or when my turtle, McFry died, I thought I was going to see them. But, something shocked me back to reality. I coughed, my throat burning, my eyes sore as I stared around me, only seeing white, and then darkness, which soon showed a man that was soaking wet, and Matt with Jonas and all our other friends. Mom and Dad were freaking out over behind Matt. But, I couldn't call out to them.

I was then taken to a hospital, where the doctors checked everything, asking my question that I tried and failed to answer. They said it was probably just post traumatic syndrome. But further inspection proved that my vocal chords had been destroyed, and there was no way of them fixing it. I would be mute for the rest of my life.

Mom and Dad had bought sign language books, and hired a tutor/translator for me, I learned quickly and read through the books thoroughly. My tutor/translator had tried to make a pass at Matt once, when we were entering our teenage years, but when he refused her she tried to hurt him. I came in the room at that point and whacked her in the head with a skillet. She was then fired, after I paid a fee for giving her a concussion.

After my accident, and my protecting Matt, we gave up our determination to be different, and started spending more time with each other. We realized there was no possible way for us to not be like the other, it was just simple facts. I taught him sign, which he picked up just as fast as I did.

When he was diagnosed with Cancer, it seemed since now we were okay with being the same, the universe was determined to make us different. But, we refused to part from each other. I became his support, and he became my protector.

**Matt:**

I was staring up at the stars, while Dad ran around with Billy and Mary. My mind was so wrapped up with how Molly and I were with each other, how different from each other we were now that we didn't mind being alike.

"Remember when we used to go camping when you were young?" Dad asked, flipping the burgers. Yeah, that was before Molly and I had ever tried being different from each other. "Every night you would…fall asleep counting the stars with Molly, curled up together, and you could never finish. Used to drive you two nuts."

"You know, most of the stars that we see are already dead." I commented, looking back at the sky.

"They look pretty alive to me." he smiled.

"That's because they haven't gotten the news yet." I said, getting up to go inside.

Molly was curled up, her back firmly against the cold wall, her hair brushed back so her ear was to the fabric of the pillow. I watched as her nose twitched like it did when she was having a good dream. "At least it's not a nightmare." I whispered, relaxing beside her, and falling to sleep.

**Molly:**

_I felt the sense of despair, helplessness, sorrow, and fear. Opening my eyes, I was alone in the basement room. "Matt?" I called, putting my bare feet on the cold ground. I heard a sniffle, and looked in the corner by the doors, farthest from me. A boy was hugging his knees, his head in his arms. "Who are you? Are you alright?" And then something hit me. I was dreaming. I put my hand to my throat, enjoying the smoothness of words escaping my lips._

_I got up and reached out my hand, but the boy flinched back, pressing himself farther into the wall. "You don't have to be afraid of me." I soothed, kneeling down, making myself smaller so I didn't frighten him any further. "What's your name?" I asked, taking his hand in mine. It was cold, and soft._

_He whispered something so low I couldn't hear it. "What?" I asked._

"_Jonah." he said, just loud enough this time._

"_Hi Jonah, I'm Molly. Why do you seem so afraid?" I asked, sitting cross legged in front of him. He shook his head. "Will you look at me?" I leaned forward, trying to see through his arms. He lifted his head, and I saw clear blue eyes, and a young face. It was obvious that he'd seen terrible things._

"_Hi Molly." he whispered, relaxing. I didn't pull my hand away, and I didn't move. We sat there for awhile, not really saying anything. "You need to wake up now." he commented, staring at our hands. "Thank you for sitting with me. I'm not so afraid anymore." he only smiled slightly, but it was something._

"_Why were you afraid?" I really wanted to know._

"_Matthew has to know." he said. I furrowed my brow, and cocked my head to side. I was just about to ask him what it was my brother needed to know, but I was violently yanked from my dream._

I sat bolt upright, my hand pressed to my chest in an attempt to calm my speeding heart. I tried calling out for Jonah, but nothing came out. I rubbed my throat, which was suddenly sore, as if I'd swallowed buckets of lake water, without taking a breath.

"*What's the matter?*" Matt signed, and then went back to pulling on his shoes.

"*Just a weird dream. Where are you going?*" I asked, pointing to his shoes.

"*To the hospital for my check up.*"

"*Why didn't you wake me up? Or did mom insist that I not come this time?*" I asked, a frustrated look on my face.

"*Mom.*" he sighed. "*Besides, you need some rest, you've been looking really tired lately.*" I nodded, and laid back into bed, shutting my eyes.

"*Strange places.*" I signed to him.

He only laughed before kissing my forehead. "Get some rest, we'll be back in a few hours." he whispered and then forced his way upstairs.

While Matt was at the hospital I was out, exploring the yard and everything else about the house. It was easy to say that this place was creepy. Everywhere I looked, I felt like Jonah had been there. _That's crazy, Jonah's just someone from a dream. He isn't real._ I thought sternly to myself.

But part of me wanted him to be real, and the another part knew he was. I walked back down to the basement. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw something, a shadow in the windows. "*I really need to get some posters.*" I signed to myself.

I turned to go back upstairs, but stopped short. In front of me was a man…a corpse really, with carving all over his skin. His eyes were wide open…no, his eyelids had been cut off. They were glassy, and just stared at me. I looked around and saw there were more, each of them walking slowly towards me. The man reached out to touch me and when his skin made contact with my arm it burned. I jumped back, falling onto my bed. They were coming closer.

I looked to my arm, and saw a red burn mark, the shape of hand around my forearm. The walls and floors turned rotten and ashen. I pulled my knees up to my chest and buried my face in my hands. _Please, just make them go away!_ I begged in my head. I refused to look up. There was a buzzing, and I peaked through my fingers. Everything was normal again. The people were gone, and I was alone again. I looked at my forearm to see the burn was gone. _They'll just think I'm crazy if I say anything…besides, it did not happen. I thought. I would not think about what just happened. Ever._


	3. Chapter 3

I let myself fall back to sleep, even though I was scared to death of this place.

_The smell of death surrounded me. I opened my eyes to see that I was still in my room, just my stuff, and Matt's stuff were gone. "Molly…I'm afraid." I turned around to see Jonah._

"_What are you afraid of, Jonah?" I asked, getting up and walking over to him. He took my hands, and stared at them for a while before answering._

"_I'm afraid that I'll be stuck here forever…that we all will." he whispered._

"_Who's 'we'?" I asked. I loved my dreams where I could talk, but it seemed that it was only when I dreamed of Jonah, not any other time._

"_Them." he shuttered, looking behind me, and around us. Before I could look at what he was talking about, he pulled me into a hug, not letting me see them. "I don't want you to see them." he said firmly. "You don't need to see them. You shouldn't have to see them. You shouldn't be able to." he sobbed into my hair._

"_Jonah, let me help you." he shook his head._

"_Matthew is the only one who can help us."_

"_Then, let me help him help you. What is it that he needs to do?" I asked._

_He shook his head again. "I don't want you to get involved."_

"_I already am. Matt is my brother, my twin. You've shown yourself to me twice already. I'm involved now, Jonah." I whispered, wrapping my arms around his waist. I realized that he was taller then me. Matt may have been my twin, but I was shorter than him, too._

"_My next visit to you, I won't let them in." he sighed, lifting my chin so I was looking up at him. For a moment, I thought he was going to kiss me. His lips were so close to mine, I could feel the coolness radiating off of them. "Matthew has to know." he whispered. Again, I was violently pulled out of my dream._

I sat up straight in my bed, and looked around. Everything was normal again. Matt had come home, I must have been out for a while. Since I was hungry, I got up to get something to eat.

**Matt:**

I was finally in the room behind the doors. But I didn't feel like I was me anymore. Billy had come looking for me. "Whoa, how'd you get in here? What is this place?" he asked. He was checking out an eye scooper, and I leaned against the operating table.

"Hop on." I said, as he looked back at me. He did as I said. "Take you for a ride." I stated, starting to spin the table.

I kept making it go faster as he gripped the sides. "Slow down!" he begged, but I kept spinning it. Flashes of coffins and grave robbing appeared before me with every turn, as if I was looking down into the scene. "Matt. Matt." his voice echoed through my ears, but I couldn't really hear him. "Stop! Let me off!" he screeched. "Stop! Matt. Matt!" and then I stopped it. The images were gone.

"What's going on down here?" Dad asked.

"What's the matter with you?" he asked, trying to cover up his fear of me.

"I guess I must've loosened it." Dad said, completely oblivious to what had just happened. Dad began to look around, freaked out by what he was seeing. That's when Molly came in. "Good Lord." he muttered to himself.

I looked to Molly. "*I don't think the Lord exists down here.*" she signed.

"Now we know why the rent was so cheap." Dad whispered.

**Molly:**

I was sitting back in my chair, sketching the boy from my dream, Jonah. "Okay, so we all know now that this was a funeral home." Dad started, trying not to freak any of us out. "Big deal. It's not now and it hasn't been for years and years. It's just a house." Mom smiled at him. "Bricks and nails and wood. It's our house until Matt finishes at the hospital. And we're all under a lot of stress…so we need to pull together like a team, okay?" Billy looked at Matt from the corner of his eyes. "Okay. So who wants to say grace? Matt?" he volunteered. I rolled my eyes and took my brothers' hands.

I jumped as a surge of electricity went through Matt's hand to mine. I saw flashes of peoples faces and then a blurry scene of a group of people holding hands, and a man with a camera. I looked to my right, and saw flashes of Matt and then of Jonah, and then it was just Jonah.

He started shaking, and squeezing my hand, grunting in pain and fear. "Jonah?" I called, surprised that my voice was loud and clear. "Jonah!" and then I saw Matt, and Wendy, and Mom and Dad and Mary and Billy. Jonah was gone again.

"Honey, are you alright." Matt was squeezing mine and Wendy's hands still, and Billy pried his hand out of my grip.

"Sorry." I quickly mouthed to him.

"What's wrong?" Dad asked sternly.

"It's the medicine." Mom said.

Matt looked around the table and then to Wendy. "Didn't you see it?" He knew I saw it.

"Come on." Wendy said, getting up and taking Matt from the dinning room. Matt's grip on my hand was still strong and he pulled me with him.

"Molly, you need to stay here." Mom said firmly, but I ignored her. It's not like she didn't do that to me all the time, unless she was trying to win an argument.

"So what happened?" Wendy asked Matt, since she didn't know a bit of sign language, she started with him.

"Do you remember that book we used to read when we were little kids?" Matt asked, still holding tightly to my hand. My grip hadn't eased either. "The one with all the weird pictures? _The Man Who Wasn't There_. Used to love that book."

"Yeah, I remember." Wendy nodded.

"_As I was walking up the stairs I saw a man who wasn't there._" Matt quoted. "_He wasn't there again today. Oh, how I wish he'd go away._" Wendy quoted the phrase from the book along with Matt. "Do you remember the other one?" he asked.

"Maybe. Which one?" she asked.

"_It was one bright day in the middle of the night. Two dead boys got up to fight. Back-to-back they faced on another. They drew their swords and they shot each other. A deaf policeman, he heard the noise. And he came and he killed those two dead boys._" he whispered.

"Matt, you're scaring me." Wendy whispered back.

"Well, join the club." he sighed, staring at the silhouette in the creepy door window.

**Matt:**

I was sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, watching some boring and slightly creepy cartoon. That is until there was an unsettling vibration in my ears. I looked down at the floor beside me and saw a crab crawl towards me. I felt something on my leg. It was another crab, and then one was on my arm. I jumped in pain, only to see that it was a needle from one of the nurses.

"Oh, now, that didn't hurt." she smiled and walked off. I looked for the crabs but they were gone.

"You were dreaming. Been breathing heavy, and so of course…" I looked to my right to see an older bald man beside me. "…it can either mean it was a very bad dream or a very good one." he smiled.

"Well, I've had better." I sighed. I studied him briefly, deducing that he wasn't a creeper, so I settled for striking up conversation. "I don't know, it's just, like, that sometimes lately it's been tough."

"What?" he asked, looking at me, showing that I had his full attention.

"I don't know, like, do you ever, like, see things?" I asked. Molly always hated it when I said like more then once in one sentence. "Like, hear things that just- They can't be there?"

The man took in an intake of breath, looking around to make sure no one had heard me. "You don't ever wanna tell them you can see things, okay?" he suggested. "They're not gonna understand." Like Molly would say, this man was no bull shit, he told you like it was. "I remember when my wife was dying…that whole last day I sat there, praying, crying. And she never once looked up at me. She just looked all around her. At all the others in the room. But we were alone. Or so I thought." he said.

I remember when Molly came back to us after the lake incident. She'd been declared dead for three minutes, and when she came back, she looked around everywhere, but not at the people who were there, and then she looked at me, and mom and dad.

"See, she was where we are. In the valley…of the shadow of death." he said soothingly, and wisely. "Hey, you know what to do when you find yourself in the valley?" he asked, noticing my discomfort at the idea of being half way dead- and knowing that it was true.

I shook my head, "No." I barely said loud enough for him to hear.

"Fear no evil." he said simply, as if it were the easiest thing in the world. "If you wanna talk or…just call." he said, handing me his card, which read _Reverend Nicholas Popescu_ "Any time."

**Molly:**

I was leaning against the wall, watching Mary play with her dolls, scolding one of them for not making Matt better, which I couldn't help but smile at, and then putting it in time out. There was a rumble, and the lights flickered.

I looked up from my quick glance at my feet to see a man standing beside my sister, carvings in his skin. I was about to yell for Mary to move away from him but I remembered I had no voice, and then the lights went out. "Turn the lights on please!" she shouted and they came back on. The man was gone.

Tonight, I was alone. Matt would be staying at the hospital tonight. I curled up in bed, Matt's pillow where he should have been, and the blankets like a cocoon around me. My eyes were darting everyone in the dark, scared of what I'd see in the shadows. Scared of what I didn't see in the shadows.

_I'm gonna invest in a nightlight…_ I declared to myself.

I sighed deeply and closed my eyes, at least trying to go to sleep. _Jonah…will you watch over me?_ I asked in my head. I didn't actually think he'd hear me, but I figured, what the hell. _Are you even real, or am I finally loosing it?_ I asked again, hoping he at least was real, and would tell me so.

"_Yes…I'm real."_ I heard him say. I felt cold arms wrap around my body, but it was as if they weren't even there. It felt more like the lingering sensation of someone holding you, after they'd already let go. I tensed at his touch, but feeling him about to pull away, I quickly relaxed, not wanting him to move. _"And, yes, I'll watch over you. I won't let them come to you tonight." he whispered in my ear, but it felt more like the slightest shuffling of air, not like someone was actually talking to me._

_I decided to take comfort in the fact that I was alone tonight, and that the person keeping me company wasn't something to fear._


	4. Chapter 4

We were all at the table, eating our breakfast, Billy and Mary goofing off. Mom informed that she had to go to work and that Wendy was in charge, successfully harming Matt every time she touched him. "I'm sorry, honey." she sighed, noticing what she was doing.

"See ya mom!" Billy said sweetly.

"You be good or else you guys have to deal with me." Matt joked. "Okay?" Mary smiled and nodded her head, but Billy stared at him, slightly scared. "I'm just kidding. It's okay." Billy relaxed and laughed.

"Fifty-one, fifty-two!" Matt was calling, as everyone was playing hide-and-seek. Wendy went outside to read, and I was in my room, lounging on the bed, dozing off. I jumped as soon as I heard Jonah's name being shouted. I looked around, and saw him being dragged in the room by an older man, and into the scary doors. Matt came running in, obviously having seen him too.

"You are not leaving!" The man had shouted, as Jonah kept apologizing. The door slammed in Matt's face, but he just opened it. I got up and followed him in. There were bodies everywhere. The door slammed shut behind us.

Matt tried to get out, but I was frozen where I was, praying that Jonah hadn't been one of these bodies. The cloth over them came off, and each one of them had carvings in their skin. The foot of one twitched, and Matt jumped, shouting, and grabbing my hand.

"Wendy?" he called. "Wendy! Help! Wendy!" he shouted. The bodies were standing now, surrounding us, and Matt pulled me into him, trying not to look at them, but he couldn't help it. I stared at each one of them.

They were trapped here, it was obvious. _"Matthew has to know"_ I heard in my head, it was Jonah's voice. "Jonah!" I tried to shout, but nothing came out. Matt felt my jaw move.

"Shhhh, Molly, it's okay, I won't let them hurt you." he said, smoothing down my hair, trying to stay calm while trying to keep me calm. "Oh, for God's sakes." he whispered, still trying to keep his eyes away from them.

"_*I don't think God exist down here.*"_ I remember signing that, and that's exactly how I felt right now.

"Just leave us alone!" Matt shouted, pushing one away. I opened my eyes, not having realized they were shut in the first place, to see Billy there. I heard Mary gasp, and saw that she and Wendy were there too.

"It's okay, it's okay." I wonder who she was actually saying that to. I wrapped my arms around Matt's neck, and hugged him to me, I could tell he was ignoring the pain inflicted on him from our hug, but I just wanted him to be safe. Safe from something that I knew was going to hurt him. "Come on, guys. Let's go." Wendy said, leading Mary out of the room. "Billy. Come on."

Matt was sitting on the stairs, calling the reverend he'd told me about when he got back from the hospital the other day. I was in our room, trying to call out for Jonah, wishing he'd just appear all ready. I held myself, rocking back and forth on the bed, dry sobbing.

That's when I felt the lingering feeling again. _"Shhhh."_ he soothed in my ear. I tried latching onto his arm, but only felt my chest. _"You'll only feel me in your dreams."_ he whispered, rubbing his forehead into my shoulder. I was freezing from his touch, but it was comforting and I didn't want it to go away. _"You shouldn't have followed him into the room."_ he said.

_I wasn't going to leave him alone like that. _I sighed. _Those things were scary, I wasn't going to let him face that alone_. I said, defiance in my voice.

"_They were the others trapped here. Matthew has to know, he has to learn."_ Jonah sighed, turning me to face him. It was so weird, being moved by a spirit.

_But, why by himself?_ I asked in my head. If only I could speak to him without dreaming…

"_I don't want you to be any more scarred than you already are. And he is closer to death than you are."_ he stated.

_Jonah…if he helps you…what will he get in return?_ I wondered.

"_What ever he wishes for…"_ he replied, pressing his forehead to mine.

_What if I want to help you too?_ I asked, not even thinking about my previous question.

"_So you can have a wish as well?"_ he asked, sitting up straight.

_Actually, no, so I can help you be at peace._ I narrowed my eyes at him. But, he only smiled. _I'm going to help you, and Matthew, whether you like it or not._ I snapped. Still his smile didn't waver.

"_If you insist…Just know, I'm not happy about it."_ he said simply, and he laid his lips on mine before disappearing.

It turned out that Reverend Popescu knew sign language incredibly well. So, when he spoke, he included me in the conversation. Unlike Mom, who only talked to everyone else, even if I was actually apart of what was being said.

"It's all around us, all the time." he said, softly, as we three sat on the stairs of the church. "The living and the dead. Invisible to everyone. Almost everyone." he corrected himself at the end, looking between me and Matt.

"Yeah." Matt agreed.

"Because we're not like other people anymore." he directed that comment to Matt.

"Then why can Molly see these things too?" Matt asked, grabbing my hand and holding it to his chest.

"You see, most people spend their life firmly planted in this world…then one day, they go straight to the other side, but we…" he gestured to all three of us. "We take a much more roundabout path. You told me Molly had died, been declared dead for three minutes, until she came back. She's been exposed to the valley. That hatch has been opened for her, and no one can close it. We spend quite a lot of time in the borderland. But either way, only one thing matters."

"*Yeah, what's that?*" I asked, leaning my head on Matt's shoulder.

"Well, find out what he wants from you." he answered.

Matt was forcing himself to do sit ups while I brushed my teeth. I looked at him, his skin was red. It reminded my of the time when we went out to the beach with Wendy and her family. Somehow, we'd both managed to get a sunburn on the exact same spot. And we sat there, poking each other. Every time he poked my burn, he felt it, and every time I poked his, I felt it. That was the day we truly understood our bond as twins.

I heard Matt force his way back up into a sitting position, and then gasp. I turned to see he had pushed himself away from a figure, kneeling down beside him. The skin was black and gooey, but the shape of whoever that was, was familiar. _Jonah…_ I thought to myself.

Matt didn't look away from Jonah, just stared steadily. "What do you want from me?" he asked. I wiped my face and walked out the bathroom. I laid my hand on Jonah's shoulder, and I saw Matt flinch when I touched him. The same image flashed in Matt's and my head, of fire and the face of a dead man.

We both jumped and Jonah was gone.

I was standing in one place in the middle of the room, staring at the creepy doors. Matt was somewhere, I couldn't remember. I couldn't really think, or move, honestly. I heard Billy and Mary yelling, for Mom. I guess maybe they found Matt.

Mom and Dad had gotten back from the doctor's, and it had been a while since they found Matt. But, I hadn't left the room, until Matt convinced me to go up and get something to eat. Matt was upset about how they had found him still, and Mom was just upset about everything.

He got up and threw the towel he was holding onto the counter, and Mom went to hug him, but when she touched him it caused him pain. _Why didn't I cause him pain whenever I hugged him?_

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry. I just love you so much." she said, putting her hand to her mouth.

"Mom, love hurts." he joked, but was serious at the same time. She seemed slightly hurt about that, and started to leave, ignoring my presence.

"Look, Mom I just-" Matt called after her. She stopped to give him her attention. _Would she do that if I were trying to explain something to her? If I could talk?_ "Look, I want you to know that if-"

"If what?" she cut him off.

"That if I die-"

"You won't." she cut him off again, and she left.

"-it's not your fault." he muttered.

"*I'm going to go see if she okay…*" I signed. He nodded and I got up, leaving.

She was sitting on her bed, silently crying to herself. "*Mom?*" I signed, coming in. She looked at me and her eyes narrowed. I stopped a few feet in from the door way.

"You didn't stop him." she mumbled.

"*Mom-*" she cut me off.

"You were here. You may not be able to talk, but you could have stopped him from doing that to himself!" she yelled. "Why didn't you do anything?" I closed my eyes and counted to ten before I turned on my heel and left the room. _I'll just leave her to a pray to a God who isn't answering any calls right now._

My head was laying against Matt's shoulder as he played with my hair, dozing off. There was a rumbling in my ears and a shadow on the wall. It was reaching for Matt. I opened my mouth, trying to shout, trying to make it go away. But, I couldn't shout, and I couldn't make it go away.

So the game of hide-and-seek was just as crappy as the first time, and this time a box of photos of families posing with their dead relatives was found, along with a mangy old book. Matt, Wendy and I were busy looking through the photos.

"God, they're all…dead. So sad. It's probably the only time they ever had their photo taken." Wendy whispered. Matt picked up a small tin box, opening.

"What are those?" Wendy asked, after Matt picked up one of what was inside.

"*Eye lids*" I signed.

"That's gross." he said, throwing it back into the tin box.

"What?" Wendy asked.

"Nothing." Matt sighed.

Wendy went back to looking at photos. "These are really weird. It had to be fake." she said.

"*Let me see those.*" Matt took them from Wendy and handed them to me. I recognized the body frame, and my breath caught. Matt looked over my shoulder and flinched when I turned the picture. It was a clearer photo of Jonah.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Matt, come on. Give me a chance." Matt took the photo and turned it so she could see.

"I've seen him."

"*I've seen him, too.*" I signed.

"So has she."

"Shut up." she said, disbelieving.

"Gave you a chance." he said, irritated.

"I'm sorry, okay? Just…Go on. Please?"

"I thought that I was hallucinating, but I have seen this kid…almost every day since we've been here." Wendy looked at me, to see if I had the same to report, and I just nodded. "Okay, I wake up in the middle of the night…and it feels like he's been inside me…looking out through my eyes. _One bright day in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight. Okay, me and him, we're just two dead boys." he whispered, obviously freaking Wendy out._

"_Then how come she can see him, too?"_

"_She's been dead before, it's like a can of worms that can't be closed…for either of us." Matt answered._

"_Maybe the place is haunted. Either way, I mean, we need to find out…who put these things under the floorboards and why." Wendy declared._

"_Yeah, but how?"_

"_Okay, well, don't tell anyone, but there are these buildings…all over the country where secret knowledge is kept, known only…as libraries." I snorted in laughter, trying to hold it back._


	5. Chapter 5

"Okay, so check it out. "A case of materialization." That is Ramsey Aickman, and this was his mortuary." Wendy said, pointing out an old man. I stared down at the black and white photo, beside the old man was Jonah. "Now, he had a very interesting hobby: psychical research. And your guy, dead kid, his name was-"

I cut her off by signing, "*Jonah.*"

"What she say?" Wendy asked.

"She said his name is Jonah." Matt interpreted.

"Yeah, how did you know?" she asked, furrowing her brow at me.

"*He told me. Matt's not the only one who sees him, remember?*" I signed smiling.

"He told her…" Matt watched me for a moment, before going back to paying attention to Wendy. When focus wasn't on me, I would touch my lips, remembering when his had been there.

"Jonah was Aickman's assistant and a medium. Supposedly, they contacted the dead through Jonah…and people came to have chats with their dead hubby or wife…or find out where Auntie Mame hid the family jewels." I rolled my eyes at how lightly she was taking things at the moment. "Now, he claims that he discovered how to amplify the séances. So he not only contacted the dead, but he made things appear."

"What things?" Matt asked.

"Ectoplasm."

"And what is ectoplasm?"

"A mysterious protoplasmic substance streaming out of the body of mediums." she answered. I bit my lip, wondering if that ever hurt Jonah, which I'm guessing it did. "So it's just like in those pictures in the box. Photographs of ectoplasm often show a gelatinous material oozing from all the natural orifices of the medium. From mouth, ears, nose, eyes and even the lower orifices. So Aickman held all those séances in this house…and people came from all over and were convinced. Harvard professors, all kinds of big shots. I mean, Aickman and Jonah's séances were famous."

"Well do we know what happened to him?" Matt asked, holding a photo of one of the séances. I thought of the time at dinner, when Matt and I had been pulled into one of the scenes of a séance. Jonah did feel pain when he did that.

"Well, here's where it gets a little weirder. So there was a séance led be Aickman with Jonah as the medium. All four sitters and Aickman were found dead. Cause of death not clear."

"So Jonah killed them." Matt deduced.

"*You don't know that!*" I signed, anger clear on my face.

"Nobody knows. No sign of him. He was missing, vanished never seen again." Wendy said, slightly confused of what I'd said.

"Until now." Matt said, confused of why I said it the way I did.

"Well, here's the weirdest part of all. Okay, so thirty years later…in the 50s when they expanded the highway…they did the detour through the cemetery…"

"Wait, we've been on that road a million times on the way to the hospital." Matt cut in.

"Well, this is the thing: When they tried to relocate some of the old plots… they found something weird, or didn't find."

"What?"

"Over a hundred bodies that were supposed to be there weren't, just empty coffins filled with sandbags. Someone stole the bodies."

"*Aickman.*" I signed.

"You don't know that." he smirked at me. "Or Jonah. Aickman or Jonah." he said, serious now.

"*Aickman could have forced Jonah to do it.*" I said, again angry at Matt for accusing Jonah like that.

"Good point, Aickman could've forced Jonah to help him."

"Maybe, but why?" Wendy asked.

"I don't know, but I might know somebody who does." Matt sighed.

"Remarkable." Reverend Popescu whispered as he looked at the photos.

"Do you think it's real?" Wendy asked.

"Well, I've seen plenty of fakes, but I've seen the real thing once." he said, coming to the one of Jonah, with the ectoplasm leaking out of his mouth. I wanted to cry when I thought of how much pain he was forced to endure. Paris. It… It was the most horrible thing I've ever seen, but not this. Must've been a very powerful medium." Wendy pushed the box of to him, and he went straight for the tin box of eye lids.

"What are they?" Wendy asked.

"Eye lids. Human eyelids." he replied.

"Well…what are they for?" Wendy asked.

"*Necromancy.*" I signed.

Reverend Popescu nodded, "Exactly right, Necromancy." he agreed.

"How did you know?" Wendy asked.

"She reads a lot of books…more than you, considering she doesn't have the option of talking to other people too often." Matt replied, smiling awkwardly at me.

"Corpse-bothering." Reverend Popescu continued. "It's a loathsome form of magic. It's seeking power through control of the dead via relics of their bodies."

"Well, why eyelids?" Matt asked. Wendy just looked thoroughly disgusted at all of this.

"That's a good question. I mean, traditionally we'd close the eyes of the dead so they may…rest in darkness."

"*I, personally, am afraid of the dark.*" I commented. Matt laughed, rolling his eyes, and Reverend Popescu smiled.

"Now, removing their eyelids keeps their eyes open, makes them see."

"*Perhaps he intended them to be watchmen…*" I suggested.

"What are you saying?" Wendy asked, slightly frustrated.

"She said, that perhaps he intended them to be watchmen. Or guardians of this house…or of his secrets" Reverend Popescu translated patiently.

"Who? Jonah?" Wendy asked.

"*No!*" I signed. "*Aickman.*"

"No, Aickman." Matt said, more calmly than I'd signed it.

"Either way, I mean, somewhere there are the bodies…that belong to these people, and he used them. I think ultimately, Aickman intended to enhance Jonah's powers." Popescu said, shuffling through the pictures and other papers we'd accumulated.

"Well, he amplified his séances." Wendy pointed out.

"Somehow he bound the spirits of the dead to their bodies, yes…as an amplifier, probably through some form of ritual or desecration. Perhaps buried outside the house?" he asked, but we didn't know. "Perhaps it would help if we prayed for all those poor souls that died here. For the boy too." he said, holding out his hands.

As soon as Matt and I joined hands we were suddenly at the séance from dinner. Jonah was shaking, and I was shouting, but he didn't respond. "Jonah!" I shouted, my voice ringing through the air. He banged his head against the table and drool was pouring from his mouth. "Jonah! I screamed, tears running down my face. I was afraid for him, the fear in his eyes, and the pain obvious on his face. "Jonah, stop! Let go!"

His head dropped back to the table, and this time it didn't bounce back up. A puddle of saliva ran down the table cloth.

"Jonah…" I whispered, the dead silence frightening me. His grasp on my hand tightened, and he sat back up, seemingly choking on his spit. "Jonah!" I shouted, and ectoplasm oozed out of his mouth. I stared as it creped up out of his mouth. And then, I looked at his face. His eyes were wide with terror, and pain, and I cried harder. "Jonah! Let go!"

The ectoplasm exploded and everything went a flame. "JONAH!" I screamed, standing up in my chair, trying to reach out for him, but was greeted by Reverend Popescu's back instead.

"Matt! Who are you?" I heard Mom yell as she ran inside the house. "What are you doing in my house? Matt?"

"I'm a reverend." Popescu tried to explain.

"It's okay. We asked him to come." Wendy stuttered out.

"Asked him?" she repeated, momma lion was clear in her voice.

"We met at the-"

Mom cut him off, raising her voice to talk over him, "Get out of my house."

"Get off. It's fine." Matt said, still shaking from the séance scene. Mom seemed a bit taken back by Matt's reaction to her, but looked to Popescu who was still trying to explain.

"We met at the hospital. I receive treatment."

"Get out!" she shouted.

"Well, he called me for advice. It's a little hard to explain."

"Try."

"I believe that there is something evil in this house…something no longer living and not yet passed over. And it wants your son and daughter. That's a very dangerous situation for someone who's close to death-"

"He's not." she said sternly. I noticed the part where she didn't mention me.

"And I'm as hopeful as you, but tell me, have you not…felt something strange here?" Popescu asked.

Mom looked at Wendy and Matt, ignoring my presence once again, and then turned back to him. "I don't know what you're talking about. I appreciate the concern, but this is not the type of help we need right now. I'd like you to leave."

Reverend Popescu looked at her for a moment, and then bowed his head. "Of course." he took out a card and handed it to her. "You're not alone." he whispered. He bowed to each of us, and left the house.


	6. Chapter 6

Matt was with Wendy in the living room, and I was in Mom's room as she was giving me a stern chewing out. She'd already done this with Matt and Wendy of course, it was just my turn. She seemed happy that she wouldn't have to deal with any back talk like she had with Matt and Wendy trying to explain what Popescu was doing at the house.

"How could you agree to some strange man come into our house. What if he hurt you? Or worse, what if he hurt Matt?" she asked, not really paying attention to what she was saying, by now she was just rambling sternly and loudly at me. My heart panged and a lump caught in my throat when she said that. "And the other day, you two were the only one's here, and you let Matt cut up his fingers! What's wrong with you? Do you want him to die?" she asked. "You are not allowed to come along to his hospital visits anymore, and you're going to share a room with Wendy from now on, no more sleeping with Matt, you are too old to be sharing a room with him! He needs a break from you." she said sternly. I was suddenly tired of hearing her voice, and tired of listening to her further prove my belief that she loved Matt more then anyone else in our family, especially me.

I told Matt about Mom before, but he had said, _"Me and you are twins, so we're automatically equal, no matter how hard we try to be different. We're equal in everything, Molly, and that includes how much Mom loves us."_ Oh, how I wish Matt could hear Mom now.

She kept rambling on about how my actions could result in something horrible for Matt. I sighed and stood from her bed. "Where are you going?" she asked, stopping her pacing and looking at me. Instead of responding, I just started for the door, but was stopped dead by her grasping my wrist. "Don't you walk away from me when I'm talking to you young lady!" she snapped.

"*Why not? Why are you even acknowledging my existence, you never have before. Just because I'm mute doesn't mean I'm not there. And when anything goes wrong, you punish me for it the worst. You're angry that Matt and I are closer then you could ever hope to be to him, we can't help that, it's just how it is. Ever since Matt got Cancer, you seem to think that it's just you and him who are suffering, but the rest of us are, too. Just because one of your children has cancer doesn't mean you're allowed to take attention and love from your other children. I may be mute, but I'm not stupid, and I'm not invisible. Even Matt is there for me when he's in pain.

Did you know, that in the middle of the night he gets spurts of pain or nausea. Because we share a room, and a bed, I'm awake when he needs help getting to the bathroom. He can even tell you that the closer we are to each other, the easier it is to endure the pain. Why do you think he never flinches when I touch him.*" I finally stopped moving my hands. Mom just stared at me, obviously having gotten lost. "*And you don't even know what the hell I'm saying.*" I signed, and stomped out the room, down to the basement.

_This time, Jonah wasn't there as soon as I fell asleep. I'd been cuddling up to Matt, dozing off, and finally I was in my dream. I was curled up in a ball, in the corner I first saw Jonah, crying. Mom had hurt tonight, much worse than she normally did._

_Solid, cold arms wrapped around me, pulling me into his lap. I intertwined my arms around Jonah's neck and cried into his shoulder. _

"_I'm sorry you had to see what you saw, and about what happened with your mother." he whispered, rocking me back and forth, rubbing circles into my back._

"_I'm sorry that you had to go through all of that with Aickman…" I said, though it was slightly muffled due to the fact the my face was still buried into his shoulder._

_When I calmed down, Jonah and I just sat and talked. I'd ask him a few question about all those years ago, and he told me as much as he could bare. I heard stomping around and shouting. It was Dad, and he was drunk._

"_Oh, no." I sighed, rubbing my face with my hands._

"_You should probably wake up." Jonah suggested._

_I looked at him from between my fingers. "Yeah, you're probably right." I grumbled. "See you later, Jonah." I smiled, getting up._

_It was weird that my dreams were like this now, and I knew once we put the souls to rest, I'd never have these dream visits with Jonah ever again. He smiled, and kissed me. His cold lips were electrifying. How weird is it to have a romantic relationship with a ghost? Very. Unlike the last time he kissed me, this one lasted longer, and seemed more urgent, and deeper. And then, I was violently pulled out of my dream and back into the waking world, only hearing his voice like a whisper._

"Why are all the lights on?" Dad shouted. "Ridiculous. Everybody in this house is sleeping with the lights on and I wanna know why!" Matt and I sat up. "Why don't we just build a fire and throw money into it? I gotta pay a mortgage, I'm now paying rent. Here's another one. God." I heard a light bulb smash. "Every single room has got a light on!" he screamed. I heard a door get kicked open and just knew Mom, Wendy, Billy and Mary were in that one. "Here we go! Sleep in the dark!" A little while later, Dad left, after Mom spoke with him, and everyone was going back to sleep.

The electricity was going crazy. Matt and I ran upstairs, him holding my hand the whole way. We climbed into bed with Mom, Wendy Billy and Mary, but the only name she called out for was Matt's. I curled up between Matt's legs, being sure not to have any physical contact with Mom. Matt wrapped his arms around me, and held onto me protectively.

_Jonah, please make it stop!_ I begged in my head, forcing back the tears. And it all stopped, it was dark again. _Thank you, Jonah._

"_It's hard to force the other spirits to stop these things, Molly."_ he whispered in my head, but not in an irritated way.

Mom called Popescu. Matt was curled up on the bed, shaking. Mom and Popescu came down. "Yeah, he's here. Do you see him Matt?" he asked. Matt nodded staring at Jonah's figure in the creepy windows.

"Molly, go upstairs." Mom said, not looking at me.

Matt reached behind him and grabbed my hand. "N-no." he said, his teeth chattering.

"It's best if she stays, she's been in direct contact with the spirit. Do you see him, as well?" he asked me. I nodded.

"I don't see anything."

"That's because you're strong, you're healthy. You shouldn't see anything." Popescu explained.

"So is Molly."

"Molly died once, though. She was farther than Matt or I in the valley. She was exposed to the after life, but came back. That's a hole can of worms that can never be closed again." Mom ran over to Matt and held onto him, taking his hand away from mine. Popescu went into the creepy room.

"I heard what you said to Molly, the night Reverend Popescu came." Matt forced out, taking his hand from her and grasping mine again. Mom stared at him, shocked. "I'm not your only child with a problem, and needs attention." he said. I heard doors slam. "Molly, go…calm Jonah." he whispered. I nodded and crawled off the bed.

"Molly, wait, you shouldn't go." Mom said, grabbing my arm.

"Yes she should. Jonah trusts her, I can feel it." Matt said. After a moment, Mom let go of me._ What do you care anyway? As long as your precious Matt is okay…_ I thought bitterly to myself.

_Jonah, he knows you're here, stop freaking out._ I smiled.

"_The other spirit's, they are the watchmen, he must be careful. You must leave!"_ Jonah shouted in my head.

The doors started to slam, and birds began to fly every which way. And then, everything went blank.

"_The other spirits are still in the house. I will be at rest soon enough. Matthew has to know." Jonah said, hugging me to him._

"_You'll be gone after this dream, won't you?" I asked, holding him as tight as I possibly could._

"_Yes. But it is how it has to be. How it should've been all along." he smiled, running his fingers through my hair. "You will see me one more time, after this is all over. That's when you can make your wish." I nodded, and he laid his lips on mine. I knew exactly what it would be._


	7. Chapter 7

**This one is short.**

* * *

><p>Matt and I were trying to get some rest, my head still hurt from the fall I took earlier. I felt a stinging all over my skin, and then I heard Matt let out a cry of terror and pain. I sat up, and winced. He was covered in the carvings, I looked down at my arms, and saw I was too.<p>

Mom ran down stairs and saw us. "Oh my God!" she cried. "Oh, my- Oh, my-" she couldn't get the words out. She unbuttoned Matt's shirt. "Oh, my God. What have you done to yourselves?" she asked, she turned to me, and lifted up part of my shirt, seeing the same results. We were rushed to the hospital, both of us in the same truck, at Mom's insistence oddly enough.

**Matt:**

I stared at Jonah, as he showed me the last séance he'd done before he died. Every body aside from his and Aickman's was burnt to a crisp. Aickman was dying from his wounds, while Jonah seemed unharmed.

"Sir?" he asked.

"They'll be after you now." he wheezed. "Get out." and he died. The spirits chased him into the dumb-waiter. He screamed for help, and was trapped. He screamed as he roasted alive. I cried at what he showed me. Wiping away my tears his appearance changed to before he died. He was normal looking. And then he showed me Molly. She was kneeling in front of him curled into a ball in the corner of our room. She was talking to him. She was actually speaking. It switched to another scene of him and Molly. But this time, he was kissing her. Her arms were wrapped around his neck, and his around her waist. She seemed completely content with the idea of staying like that. And then I saw him again.

I looked at Molly, who was asleep, her nose twitching with a good dream. "I wonder if she's dreaming about you…" I whispered, directing it towards Jonah, even though I knew he was already gone.

**Molly:**

Matt had left. I refused to lay and wait for news of what would happen. So, I got up and followed.

I pulled Wendy, Billy and Mary out of the house, knowing fully well that Matt would throw me out, too. But, he should know by now that I don't like to listen. Matt, blocked every entry into the hose, making it impossible to get in, and started tearing down the walls of the dinning room with the axe he'd brought. I ripped away at whatever blocked the bodies from being fully exposed, my skin still stinging from the carvings in it.

"_Molly, please, leave."_ I heard Jonah whisper in my head.

_I will not leave my brother to face this alone._ I thought sternly.

We threw the bottles everywhere, pouring them over the bodies. Not a word had to be said between us, we knew exactly what we were doing. He lit the match, handing it to me, and I dropped it. The fire spread, and we threw wood into the flame. We took the photos and the eyelids, and let them burn.

The walls rotted all around, and the spirits of the people surrounded us.

Matt took my hand, and we intertwined our fingers, kneeling down and looking up at them. They reached out their hands at us, and Matt let out a roar from deep within his throat, if only I could join him…

"Matt! Molly!" I heard Dad shout.

Mom dropped on top of us, as we'd laid down on the floor, ready to die. She pulled us under a table, holding us both desperately. Matt and I hadn't let go of each others hands. A body fell. "It's all right, I'm here!" Mom said, hugging us both. Equally. "The Lord is my Sheppard. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters." I looked up, and saw the souls staring down at us. "He resoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the path of righteousness." I could feel Matt's heartbeat through his hand, it was slowing, he was dying. "He helped my son and daughter." mom cried. Matt's grip on my hand slackened, and for all that I was worth, I wished that I could scream. The spirits went away then. I could vaguely hear mom call out to the firemen, "We're here. We're here. We're here." I just held onto Matt's hand.

They helped Mom out, and carried Matt's lifeless body. I refused to let go of his hand, which made it difficult for anyone to help me walk.

"_It's time." Jonah whispered in my head. Everything went blank, the last thing I felt was falling to the ground, and Matt's hand still in my grasp._


	8. Chapter 8

**I've changed the ending of the movie so that Matt and Molly are granted one wish by Jonah for helping him, instead of 'God working in mysterious ways', - for the sake of the story. Molly has bitter feelings towards her mother, never Matt.**

* * *

><p>"<em>You've set us free." Jonah whispered, holding me again. "Do you know what you want?" he asked. I nodded, staring at my hand, the hand that, in the waking world, held my twins hand.<em>

_I thought of the time when Matt and I went to the beach, with Wendy and her family. We'd gotten a sun burn in the same spot, exactly the same. We had sat there, poking each other. Every time he'd touched my burn, he felt it, and every time I touched his burn, I felt it. That was the day we truly understood our bond as twins._

_I thought of the time when all Matt and I wanted was to be different from each other. We were so tired of being the same. But, Mom and Dad would always let slip the things we would subconsciously do alike. My determination of being different from my brother led to the lake incident. It led to me losing my voice._

_I thought of the time when my sign tutor/translator had attacked Matt, and I hit her with a skillet, giving her a concussion. That was the day Matt and I gave up on trying to be different. The day we knew there was no way we couldn't be the same._

_I thought of the time when Matt was diagnosed with Cancer. Of the joke I'd signed to him. "*Doctor says to patient: I have bad news…you have Cancer. You also have Alzheimer's. Patient says: Oh, man. At least I don't have Cancer.*" It had made him laugh when he'd felt that all hope was lost for him._

_I thought of the time when I had first told Matt about how Mom didn't love me as much as him. "Me and you are twins, so we're automatically equal, no matter how hard we try to be different. We're equal in everything, Molly, and that includes how much Mom loves us." he'd said. _

_I thought of the time when we stood together in the fire. Not afraid to die for those souls. _

"_I want my brother to live…without Cancer." I said. _

_Jonah smiled, "I was afraid you were gonna ask for me to be alive."_

"_You wouldn't be happy about that?" I asked, knowing the answer already. I always knew._

"_I've been awake for far too long now, it's time for me to rest." he said, even though he knew that I knew. "You'll see me when you journey is over, Molly." he whispered. Jonah laid his lips on mine, and then I was yanked out of the dream-like place violently._

**Matt:**

"_You helped us. You set us free." Jonah said. I looked at him, wondering what he was doing here._

"_Shouldn't you be running through endless fields of wild flowers?" I asked._

"_Not yet." he smiled. "You get something for all the trouble of setting us free." he said, his hands in his pockets._

"_Did Molly get something?" I asked._

"_Of course she did." he grinned. "It's your turn to get what you want. So what is it?"_

"_Did Molly ask for you to be alive again?" I asked._

"_That isn't what you're requesting is it? Because that would seem like a waste of a wish." _

"_No, just a question, I know what I want." I said quickly._

_Jonah thought for a moment. "No, she didn't ask for me to be alive. She knew that I wanted to finally rest, after all this time of waiting." he smiled, rubbing his neck._

"_What did she ask for?" I questioned._

"_You'll find out soon enough." he winked._

"_Do you love my sister?" _

_His eyes widened at the question, he seemed taken back by it. But then, he smiled. "I do. But she can't love a ghost. We'll see each other again, when it's time." he nodded. "Now, make your wish." _

"_I want Molly to have her voice back." I said, looking him straight in the eyes._

"_I was hoping that was what it'd be." Jonah laughed. "Thank you." he whispered. And then I was yanked out of the dream-like place violently._

_I coughed, sucking in precious air. "Oh, God, he's okay. He's okay." Mom sobbed beside me. I stared at Reverend Popescu, who was looking to his right, as if someone was there. It must have been Jonah, but I couldn't see him. I felt Molly's hand, still warm in mine. _

"_Matt?" it was so soft, and so long since I'd heard it. I looked beside me to see she was lying beside me. She looked around her, and than to me._

"_Oh, my God." Mom whispered, staring at her. "You-But how?" she asked._

_Molly and I smiled at each other knowingly. She wished for me to be alive and well, while I wished for her voice back. I saw a tear run down her cheek, and knew she was crying for a few different reasons. 1-I was alive and well, she'd gotten her wish. 2-She had her voice back. 3-She was sad that she wouldn't see Jonah again. 4- she was happy he and all the other spirits were finally at rest._

"_*Strange places.*" she signed. _

_I could only laugh. "You get your voice back and you go ahead and sign anyway." I rolled my eyes, hugging her to me._


End file.
